E-Dialogue – 11.0 | Urbanisation in Independent India – Learnings and the Way Forward Urbanisation
The eleventh edition of ‘E-Dialogues’ was based on the topic “Urbanisation in Independent India – Learnings and the Way Forward”. Since independence, India had witnessed a slow rate of urbanisation in the latter half of the 20th century. This was mainly due to the central government’s focus on the agrarian economy of India. It was only in the early 2000s that Indian cities started getting the much needed attention. In order to discuss how cities in India were developed since independence, Urban Update invited Dr Kulwant Singh, Former Asia Advisor, UN Habitat; Prof Tathagata Chatterji, Professor, Urban Management and Governance, Xavier School of Human Settlement; Shubhagato Dasgupta, Senior Fellow, Centre for Policy and Research and Kumar Dhananjay, Consulting Editor, Urban Update. The session was moderated by Abhishek Pandey, Editor, Urban Update.
Abhishek began by introducing the topic of the Webinar and saying that in India, there is a need to trace urbanisation trends post-independence India and figure out how we can improve our urban governance and design. He said, “While India has faced a population burst since Independence, its cities have witnessed uncontrolled rural to urban migration. This has resulted in cities becoming overcrowded and villages being mostly left vacant. It is high time now to try and understand how these changes have affected urban governance”
Dr Kulwant Singh informed that his focus is on the history of urbanisation. After independence, when more and more people moved to cities, there was a steep increase in urban settlement. “Larger cities are growing at a faster rate”, he said. He also showed the relation between urbanisation and economic growth and said, “More urbanised the state, higher is the per capita income.” Dr Singh addressed the issue of urban environment as well and said that the ever-changing weather is an important environmental challenge in India which adversely affects urban planning. Moreover, a large population and a large number of cars also cause deadly air pollution levels in Indian cities.
The discussion was taken up by Dr Tathgata Chatterji. He talked about the two trends that have led urbanisation in India in the post economic liberalisation period. Firstly, metropolitan cities have guided the growth process with an emphasis on market led growth. He said, “Ten cities of India have contributed about
15 per cent of the GDP growth.” Despite this, the major problem lies in the management of these metropolises. We need to have a dedicated policy for management of metropolises and focus on the global trend of economic growth guided by them. The second trend that Dr Chatterji talked about is that of growth of census towns. “In some states,there are a large of number of these towns. This is reflective of changes in rural India and shows the problem of rural distress and change of Indian economy from agrarian to service-based.
Shubhagato Dasgupta continued the discussion by addressing the two phases of India’s urban policy. During the 1980s, the first phase focused mainly on industrialisation and economic growth. “It was only in the second phase that the government focussed on urbanisation and development of small cities across India. With liberalisation on its way, cities did not have sufficient resources to implement developmental policies and this is one of the major reasons for most urban centres in India to still be underdeveloped,” claimed Dasgupta. Connecting global trends with that of India, he said, “This decade is that of development driven by Asian countries.” Due to the colonial influence in India’s early development, we have a very specific core structure of cities, with infrastructural policies that are embedded in city administration. Decentralisation is a critical process and governments should consider the freedom of urban local
bodies (ULBs).
Dhananjay introduced the importance of financial balance in urban development. He stressed upon the shortfall of execution of the policies, due to lack of freedom and coordination between the state, central government and the ULBs. He said, “There is a problem with the vision of the authorities. Lack of resources and freedom is the centre of this mess.” He also addressed the issue of limitations in the data on which the policies are formed. “Available statistics and data do not represent the reality of the nation.”
Answering Abhishek’s question regarding the reason of better working Cantonment Boards in comparison to urban bodies, Dr Singh presented the following points. First, the size of the Cantonment Boards (CB) is significantly smaller than that of most ULBs. Secondly, CBs are not elected bodies. And thirdly, they have enough resources provided by the central government. Chatterji answered a question from the audience regarding the failure of ULBs. “Funds and the master plan are not well balanced and distributed. We need to rethink the concept of decentralisation. What we need now is more of graded decentralisation, where power should be divided according to the capability,” said Chatterji. Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and New Urban Agenda (NUA) provided the best framework for further developments. Answering a question about empowering ULBs, Dasgupta said that the political focus on the development of cities is insufficient and
needs attention.